WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Thursday said the United States is "getting more and more bogged down" in Iraq and stood by his comments that the White House is disconnected from reality and losing the war.

The longer U.S. forces remain in Iraq, he said, the more it begins to resemble the Vietnam war.

Hagel mocked Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion in June that the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes," saying the U.S. death toll has risen amid insurgent attacks.

"Maybe the vice president can explain the increase in casualties we're taking," the Nebraskan told CNN.

"If that's winning, then he's got a different definition of winning than I do."

On Thursday, Cheney told a veterans group that "Iraq is a critical front in the war on terror, and victory there is critical to the future security of the U.S."

"Every man and woman who fights and sacrifices in this war is serving a just and noble cause," Cheney told the 73rd National Convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Springfield, Missouri.

Hagel, an Army infantry squad leader during the Vietnam war, sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and supported the October 2002 resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

But he said the United States risks losing more public support for the conflict amid a rising cost in blood and money.

"The casualties we're taking, the billion dollars a week we're putting in there, the kind of commitment we've got -- we're not going to be able to sustain it," he said.

Iraq and Vietnam still have more differences than similarities, he said, but "there is a parallel emerging."

"The longer we stay in Iraq, the more similarities will start to develop, meaning essentially that we are getting more and more bogged down, taking more and more casualties, more and more heated dissension and debate in the United States," Hagel said.

Hagel also did not back away from comments he made in June to U.S. News & World Report that "the White House is completely disconnected from reality" and "the reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

"It gives me no great pleasure to have said that and to say that now," he said Thursday.

He said the U.S. death toll has continued to rise "at a very significant rate -- more dead, more wounded, less electricity in Iraq, less oil being pumped in Iraq, more insurgent attacks, more insurgents coming across the border, more corruption in the government."

A total of 1,861 American troops have died in the war since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, including four who were killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Samarra. (Full story)

Cheney said in June that the insurgency is "in the last throes," and he predicted that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office. (Full story)

In the CNN interview Thursday, Hagel mentioned Cheney's comments about the insurgency and quickly added, "The facts speak for themselves."

Hagel did say he agrees with President Bush that the United States should not set a timetable for troop withdrawal, but he also predicted the United States would begin "withdrawing troops from Iraq next year."

"I don't like time frames because it gives the president no flexibility, and I think you always must have flexibility in these things and a judgment call by the president," he said.

Ultimately, he said, it's up to the Iraqis to control their nation's fate.

"That means they are either going to have to be in a position sometime next year to really step up in governing themselves, defending themselves, supporting themselves, or we can't continue to stay there indefinitely," Hagel said.

The next six months will be "very critical" in Iraq, he said.

"Not just the constitution writing, referendum, the election -- but also within that six months' period we're going to see whether the Iraqis are really going to be capable of defending themselves," he said.

On another Iraq-related issue, Hagel said Bush made the wrong decision by not meeting again with Cindy Sheehan, a mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq who has camped outside the president's Texas ranch. (Full story)

Sheehan "deserves some consideration, and I think that should have been done right from the beginning," Hagel said, noting that Bush did meet with her shortly after her son's death last year.

"I think the wise course of action, the compassionate course of action, the better course of action would have been to immediately invite her in to the ranch. It should have been done when this whole thing started. Listen to her."

What he means is the left is doing their damnedest to make it so, along with the likes of you. If it's anti-US and obviously untrue, you'll damned-sure post it as gospel.

YOU are the reason there is war. You and the idiots that think like you. You are so steeped in your hatred of anything Western/Christian/American, that you don't even care what is the truth. If it's about hating us, you're there. The more you post, the more I'm convinced you're a card-carrying member of AQ. But then, stupid as they are, they at least have some balls. You just tell lies on the internet.

If you didn't have that bathtowel on your head so damned tight, you could probably get some oxygen into your three little brain cells and maybe -- just maybe -- see what a moron you are.

What he means is the left is doing their damnedest to make it so, along with the likes of you. If it's anti-US and obviously untrue, you'll damned-sure post it as gospel.

YOU are the reason there is war. You and the idiots that think like you. You are so steeped in your hatred of anything Western/Christian/American, that you don't even care what is the truth. If it's about hating us, you're there. The more you post, the more I'm convinced you're a card-carrying member of AQ. But then, stupid as they are, they at least have some balls. You just tell lies on the internet.

If you didn't have that bathtowel on your head so damned tight, you could probably get some oxygen into your three little brain cells and maybe -- just maybe -- see what a moron you are.

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1- I am not anti-US or anti-american, I am anti-current US policies.
2- Its not about hating you, I dont know where all of this is coming from, I posted this piece of news to find you attacking me, why is that? maybe because I am showing the rest of the non-idiots like you the truth?

Replies from you and the other replies clearly shows what kind of a person are you, your replies seem to be coming from a 12 year old, the fact that your not a 12 year old makes it even worse...

1- I am not anti-US or anti-american, I am anti-current US policies.
2- Its not about hating you, I dont know where all of this is coming from, I posted this piece of news to find you attacking me, why is that? maybe because I am showing the rest of the non-idiots like you the truth?

Replies from you and the other replies clearly shows what kind of a person are you, your replies seem to be coming from a 12 year old, the fact that your not a 12 year old makes it even worse...

Click to expand...

Ok, either you hate America or you're stupid. You say you just disagree with current policy, but then rather than try to provide suggestions and ideas for a policy change, you simply try to undermine anything the current administration is trying to do. This doesn't help America change, it only weakens her against her enemies.

FACT: You may not have wanted us to go into Iraq, but we're there now, and we can't leave until the job's done, or that whole country will go to Hell in a handbasket before you can say "spread the love." All this anti-war, Vietnam bullcrap isn't going to get us to leave. Even if it did, it would be at the cost of the lives of thousands if not millions of Iraqis, and then we'd have yet another country with nothing but bitter, vile hatred of us. Really good plan, genius. Now, this crap isn't going to get us to leave, but do you know what it does do? It convinces the terrorists that they can win, raising their morale. It convinces the troops that they can lose, lowering their morale. It causes mindless idiots who believe this crap to actually start hating troops, like during Vietnam, lowering their morale further. It also causes such an obstructionist view in congress that the President has to spend more time fighting the damn Democrats than the terrorists. The longer this tactic goes on, the longer we'll be in Iraq because if the President is actually supported on this issue, we can concentrate more on how to finish the job rather than how to sneak wartime bills past the Democrats.

1- I am not anti-US or anti-american, I am anti-current US policies.
2- Its not about hating you, I dont know where all of this is coming from, I posted this piece of news to find you attacking me, why is that? maybe because I am showing the rest of the non-idiots like you the truth?

Replies from you and the other replies clearly shows what kind of a person are you, your replies seem to be coming from a 12 year old, the fact that your not a 12 year old makes it even worse...

Click to expand...

You're a lying pussy with net balls. In another post you attacked US policy in vietnam, so that means you have been against US policy for 40 years minimum, which means YOU ARE AN AMERICAN HATER, YOU ARE ANTI USA.

I will give Hagel two points....Being a VN era veteran and he being a squad leader in the US Army during the same conflict he is correct in his assessment that this war has some very close similarities with the VN conflict...he is also correct by chastizing the VP Dick Cheney...what does he really know about combat...after all he set on the bench during the VN era...working his way up the economic food chain with a marriage and college deferrment...

I do disagree with Hagel in reference to GW meeting again with "Cindy"...this would be a very bad precedent!

BTW....I believe Hagel is refering to the political intervention in the Iraq war as it was the downfall and cause of the US cutting and running from the VN conflict...why he is taking this stance now is beyond my comprehension!

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